WAS IT CRICKET?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22317, 15 January 1936, Page 10

WAS IT CRICKET?

Yet another cricket episode, not to say "incident," may have tHe 'solemn attention of the M.C.C. authorities. In the first test against New Zealand, an Englishman, J. H. Human, bowled six wides, all going to the boundary for byes; 24 good runs, at a time when New Zealand was desperately in need of runs, were thus presented to their score. The amazing deed was done deliberately, for either the rest of the side was instructed to do nothing to stop the ball, or Human, then leading the team while the English captain nursed a bruised hand, so placed the field that none could check its hurtling career. "Ah," said the intelligentsia, or whoever they are that look on at cricket matches day after day, "nearly 200 runs on ; so he''s hurrying the arrival of the hew ball! With so overwhelming a first-innings lead, runs are of less importance than to get these New Zealanders out. The artful dodger!" Who. knowing a bowler's delight in a new ball, with its firm perfection of shape and its palpable seam for service to adroit finger-grip, to 'say nothing of its rosy complexion, would not have shared that uncomplimentary comment? In London there is talk of a chorus of indignation. Was it cricket? It was; for the purpose was not to get the new ball, not even to demonstrate how far from "bodyline" English bowling is now prepared to go—but to tell the umpires that England sportingly agreed with the New Zealanders' appeal against the light. A fine gesture on the field ; and the concern in London tells the same tale of sensitiveness to honour. Human—the temptation to jest lovingly with his name on this benign occasion is almost irresistible—did a good service to cricket in that immortal over.